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if you invested $300,000 at 2%, you would get $500 a month to pay your utility bills, and a whole lot of cappuccinos, too. if electricity prices keep going up, the value of the power produced by this solar installation might even reach $500 a month. maybe.

but at the end of 10 years, a $300,000 investment is still worth $300,000, less about 25% of its real value, due to inflation. but the solar collector is “fully depreciated”, which is accountant-speak for “completely done”.

in other words, by investing in a depreciating asset, like a solar panel (or a car), you have to include the annual depreciation in the costs. even assuming a 20-year useful life, that means that the electricity produced from “free solar energy”, is costing $15,000 a year, or $1,250 a month, to collect.

If the Green Party leader can waste $300,000 of his own money on such a foolish return then imagine how much Tax Payers’ money they would waste, without conscience. Boils down to expensive self promotion. Wonder if he considered getting a wood stove and burning $300K in small bills, that would warm his house and possibly increase the value of the Canadian dollar.

Let me make this perfectly clear – I do not support the NDP or any of their commie policies, including all that greeny crap, of any of those socialists!
Having said that, when the SHTF, not if but when, and the system breaks down and the infrastructure collapses and there’s no more electrical grid – this guy is going to be sitting pretty!
Of course considering his home is in an urban area, when the SHTF, he will likely be dragged out of his ‘energy efficient’ home by hungry and desperate neighbours, killed and eaten…because that is what is going to occur in all urban areas after the quickly approaching global financial collapse causes the fall of the infrastructure…

If the cost made more sense and I could afford it, I would be totally off the grid. Tired of getting hosed by the big monopolies. It still makes no sense, but it could down the road, small scale on an individual basis. I don’t know about salvaged logs from the bottom of a lake or river though. Also where I live, we have very little sun in the winter, so I would probably have no electricity. Its the battery packs that make it still so not doable. It can’t be efficiently stored.

In Ontario solar and windmills are essentially a highly politicized rent seeking operation. Say you are a huge supermarket chain with lots of massive flat roofs in densely populated areas. The scam consists of someone installing the solar panels and associated equipment to produce suitable power which is then metered onto the power companies lines and pooled with all other power sources. This “clean power” being “privately produced” has a massively subsidized premium selling price to the utility. The money to enable the utility to buy this scam power from the well connected is generated by overcharging most of the utility’s regular residential, commercial, and industrial power consumers for the ordinary power they use.

$300,000.00 investment and a $100.00 per month return, try keying that into a repayment calculator at say 2% interest (if you that low a rate) and the calculator will spit it out because the monthly inerest is greater than the payment. Interest on a $300,000 loan at 2% would be $500 per month. This is typical green ROI flawed logic.

Notice the steel or clay tile roof which costs mucho dinero hiding under the solar panels.
The reason for this is that firefighters usually won’t do any work in the way of venting roofs at a fire scene if it involves contending with being cut up by glass solar panels and their metal frames.
Another little item these green fools neglect to mention is that government power utility debt becomes harder to service as consumption levels drop so then the money shortfall has to be made up for out of general tax revenue. So you still pay!

Hey Shaun. Smoke and mirrors ? I don’t think so.
$300,000.00 to save maybe $200.00 per month ?
I’d like to see how this adds up.
As a government party leader can you write this off somehow ? He is obviously paid far too much.
The point Ezra is making, is the green types think this is a good deal.
Wow.

IF YOUTOOK $300,000.00 ANDPUTINTOTHEBANK AT 2.5% THATWOULDGIVEYOU $7,500.00 A YEAR OR $625.00 A MONTHJUSTTHINK IF YOULEFTEVERYTHING AS IT WASYOUWOULDHAVE $500.00 A MONTH TO SPEND ON A NICECRUISE A VACATION IN FEBURARY IN FLORIDA OR A PAYMENTFOR A NEWCAR OR IF YOUWEREREALLYGENEROUSYOUCOULDPAYDOWNTHEPROVINCIALDEPT..

Shaun, why would you say “Smoke and mirrors”. That implies that theRebel is trying to hide something. What are they trying to hide by providing this video clip? And are half stories bad? Why? In what way is this story treating us like we are stupid? I just don’t see the application of your criticism here is all.